The Traitor's Family - Book 3 - Hidden in Plain Sight
by tavingtonsbeauty
Summary: The Traitor, Jamie Fraser's second daughter is something of a rebel. She returns to Scotland in the hopes of finding her newly married sister and their father. She does not realize that so many things have changed in the country of her birth. She gains help in her search and eventually finds out just how complicated life is and just how sheltered she has been from it.


Chapter 1 – To Castle Leoch Once More

March 12 in the year of our Lord 1756.

She looked up at the imposing, yet crumbling walls before her.

Janet Fraser, or Jen as she went, sighed as the rain fell on her face. Disheveled from traveling she wanted a warm bed and a fire.

She sighed walking toward the gate of her birthplace with a small satchel of the belongs she had brought with her.

It had been many years since she had been here.

She walked into the courtyard. It had much the same bustle that she remembered, but things had changed.

She cocked her head seeing a great deal of redcoat uniforms there.

She stepped to the rock wall and touched it, fondly, almost the soft caress of a lover. She closed her eyes remembering running about with her cousin Hamish, her uncle's funny legs, the cool crisp smells of autumn.

An officer walked to her. He dipped his head to her.

"Can I help you, Miss?"

She turned and looked at him.

ZzZ

It had been had year since Ellen had written to her sister.

Janet, who was still living under the care of her uncle, the emperor Fredrick of Prussia. Though she was named for her Scottish aunt, Janet went by Jen. Her sister Ellen had been named for her father's late mother.

Ellen had written to her, the first letter she had had in months from her elder sister in months, that she had married an English milord by the name of Lord John Grey. Grey was the second son of a Duke, the Duke of Pardloe. However, to avoid scandal, his elder brother had taken the lesser title of Earl Melton. According to Ellen, Grey had three brothers, two half-brothers from his mother's previous marriage and his elder brother.

She was living to the far north of Scotland, searching for their father among the remaining Jacobite prisoners. However, being a single woman, she had many men trying to win her hand. Lord Grey had offered and she had accepted.

Ellen had also mentioned she was suspecting she was with child by Grey and would write soon.

She never had again.

Jen hoped that she was not dead either from Lord Grey being a dishonorable man by lying hands on her or childbirth. She did not know what kind of men Englishmen were. She had known her Scottish family had a strong dislike and distrust of them.

She had traveled to Cleves.

Alexander, who was now nearly his sixteen year, was Duke, under the guardianship of Wil, whom the children regarded as their uncle due to the age difference, but was truly a cousin, and also a Duke and son of a Duke, whose lands he would also inherit when his father passed on, welcomed his sister.

She announced her desire to find her father and sister in Scotland.

Wil was not pleased with this idea, but he also understood. He knew that Jamie was alive still having survived Culloden. He also knew that Ellen yet lived, but he was not sure where since the prison had closed where she had been living and working.

Jen had used her influence on her brother to gain access to a carriage to take her to a harbor where she could hire a ship to travel to Inverness.

Her journey took nearly a month due to terrible weather and worse roads, but she did have funds. Her brother had seen to that. Some of her funds were sewn into her dress to keep it hidden. She dressed as a merchant, passing for the daughter of a sea captain by how she was dressed.

She had her mother's dress, from the trunk that they had saved when they had escaped so many years ago that held priceless possessions of the family. Her mother had stayed behind as a distraction while they escaped. She knew not if her mother survived, but she dearly hoped so. Her father had survived Culloden, surely her mother had at most been taken prisoner.

The dress was made of warm wool and had tartan pattern to the thick upper petticoat. She also had her mother's arisaidh that was full MacKenzie tartan that would keep her warm in the cold months. She only hoped that her cousin Hamish would still be living at Leoch since Colum had died before Culloden, she had heard. She had also heard that Dougal had died, but she was not sure if it were by combat, being caught and shot, or if he had been taken to Edinburgh to be tried as a traitor.

She arrived at Inverness and her journey, due to the heavy rains directed her to the south east for a day. She found herself at Culloden moor. She remembered this place. The hair on her neck stood up as she looked out of the carriage.

The mists were heavy on the moor, apparently, according to the footman, not uncommon this time of year. However, as she looked out, over the land where her father was supposed to have died and many Scots had, she saw movement.

Not really movement per say. It was almost like a trick of the light. Something would catch her eye and it was gone. She had asked about the battle. The footman had told her some two thousand men had died there.

She looked out again. This time, she swore she could see highlanders in their different tartans, running about after facing the English artillery. She looked down as they passed. She felt a terrible sense of loss and pain.

She felt rather ill after traveling by the misty moor. They continued for the three days to Leoch. She had been surprised when she had first seen it. It had clearly fallen into disrepair, though there was a fair amount of Hussle and bustle about the place.

She had stepped out into the mud, looking about. She did not know really what she was expecting. A grand homecoming? Someone recognizing her? She wasn't sure. No one even particularly even looked at her.

She felt a bit of longing for her way of life she had taken for granted. The life of the sister of a Duke. Privilege, good food, fine company, suitors she had to fend off, and of course, most people treating her, when she was around the towns of the castle, like a princess.

She looked down at the mud and sighed feeling it sink into her soft shoes. She was not a princess here. She would not be treated like one and she needed to stop thinking she deserved it when it suited her. These were her father's people.

She was a small dark colored woman whose clothes were lighter than she needed for the highlands. She had forgotten how the cold sunk deep almost into the bones of someone here.

She pulled on her travel cloak and looked about.

It was so much the same and yet so different.

"Can I help you miss?"

Jen turned to look at the officer who had addressed her. She smiled a little. "Can you tell me where the MacKenzie is? I would see him."

"The MacKenzie?" The man asked. He cocked his head. "Where are you from? You are not a Scot." He said.

"No. I am from the continent."

"She sounds French." Another officer said.

She took a couple steps out of the mud and looked about. "There are a great many redcoats that I do not remember here."

"This is an English garrison, miss." The first officer said. "The MacKenzies used to own this castle, but the no longer do. It was seized after the rebellion."

"So, my cousin no longer lives here."

"Your cousin?"

"Hamish MacKenzie."

The officer nodded. "He and his mother fled with many others years ago after the rebellion. Though they were neutral, all Highland clans have had their titles, lands, and artifacts of war stripped from them." He explained. "But you were on the continent? You must have left when you were very young."

She nodded. "I was young." She agreed.

"You have journeyed far for nothing I am afraid."

She sighed. "So, it would seem. May I reside her until I find what I can do."

"That will be up to the Duke of Cumberland."

She blinked. "The Duke is here?"

"Yes. He has taken up residence here for some of the year."

"Is he here currently?"

"Yes, but we shall have to make sure you can see him…" He blinked as she moved away from him looking up at the castle trying to remember from her youth where Colum's offices were. Where she would sneak in for sweets from the older man with funny legs.

"Wait Miss, you can't just barge in!"

She continued walking and the officer followed, amazed as she navigated the long corridors and hallways that had taken him weeks to learn, she seemed to know. So, she had been here before.

She knocked on the door of what had been Colum's office.

"Enter!" Came a loud voice from within.

She opened the door as the officer reached for her. She evaded his grasp and walked in boldly.

"Lord Cumberland." She said bowing to him.

The man, who was in his late thirties, looked up at the rumpled girl walking into his rooms. He blinked, eyes lifting to the lieutenant behind her. Cumberland was a handsome man, sitting at his desk, writing missives and reading accounts. He was one of the richest men in England and also one of the most brutal.

Jen had heard that this man had taken to burning crofts and towns, killing the men, burning clan materials, and leaving the women and children in the cold to starve with nothing to eat. She had read about it in news sheets, but was not sure she believed them. Now, with this man facing her with an interesting mix of curiosity, surprise, and anger at being disturbed, she did believe it.

He rose to his feet. "Welcome to Castle Leoch, my dear." He said. "What is your name?"

"Jen Greene." She said, without hesitation.

Cumberland nodded and looked up at his officer with a quarry.

The lieutenant sighed and stood next to the girl. "She came looking for her cousin she said. Hamish MacKenzie."

"Interesting. You do not look Scottish." Cumberland said. "Curious you would come here. Why would you return to Leoch?"

"I was born here." Jen said boldly. "My uncle Colum was laird."

Cumberland's eyebrow raised at the Scottish lint that was the first indication that she was telling the truth. Only a highlander could master the word properly for the area. But she had given her name as Greene. He did not remember Greene being on the logs. Which meant either she was a distant cousin or she was lying.

Her accent puzzled him. The near perfect pronunciation of laird, some of her words sounding French, and yet something else as well. He was sure she was not Scottish nor French by how her accent changed from word to word. A skill from a child to mimic the way something was said at the time they learned it.

"Dè an t-ainm a th 'ort an uair sin nighean." He said slowly and with a thick accent.

She looked at him curiously. "Ciamar a dh'ionnsaich thu Gàidhlig mar Shasainn?" She answered, her own accent thick, but not French in the slightest speaking that. Also, she was not a native speaker of Gaelic either. The words were too guttural, even for a Scot.

The Lieutenant was startled. "I did not know you knew Erse, my lord."

"Only a little, from what I have picked up from my translators and from the prisons. Just because the tongue is illegal, does not mean the populous does not still speak it." Cumberland eyed the girl. "Where are you from then that you know the tongue and yet speak it in a way I have never heard."

She shook her head. "The continent, my lord."

He looked at this tiny woman. Cumberland himself was tall for an Englishman, nearly six feet. Jen was only five and looked like a small child in the room before him. Her mannerisms confused him. She knew how to address him, she knew how to bow to him, and she spoke with a somewhat cultured accent, however, she claimed to have been born in this very castle.

"What is your family name then? Clearly you are part MacKenzie, but you do not show on the rolls."

She swallowed. "Fraser."

That caught Cumberland's attention. "Fraser?"

The lieutenant leaned close to her. "Do you mean you are kin to Lord Lovat?"

She swallowed. "I believed he was my great grandsire, sir."

Cumberland blinked. He looked at her face and then turned around. He walked to his desk and rifled through some papers. He lifted a broadsheet paper and stepped forward. "Is that the case then, Miss Greene." He said. "Then you would also be kin to this man then?" He said lifting the paper before her.

Ellen looked at the paper and she gave a small gasp.

Cumberland gave a small smile. Now he was getting somewhere.

The girl looked at the drawn image of her father on the sheet and touched the drawn hair. "Red Jamie?" She asked looking up.

Cumberland nodded. "He is a prisoner of the crown for his treasonous actions." He cocked his head. "It is a wonder you were missed on the rolls for his family. We have one Janet Fraser Murray, sister, Ian Murray, brother-in-law, and many children." He smiled. "Scots seem to come in litters. It is little wonder; the winters are harsh enough that people have little to do other than breed."

Jen's face turned scarlet at that.

He smiled. "So, you know this man."

"I did once." She admitted. She looked up at him. "The birth records here at the church should have my birth record. I was born Janet Fraser." She said. She looked back at the sheet and then felt spots coming before her eyes as her lack of eating for nearly two days was beginning to catch up with her.

"I would prefer that all traitors who fought at Culloden be shot, but since Red Jamie escaped justice for many years, the crown feels it is sufficient to merely hold him as a prisoner. The King, for now, is done taking heads." He looked up at her. "He did take Lord Lovat's head."

She felt bile in her throat as she blinked. She felt warm all over and then ice flowed into her veins. She took a breath and staggered a moment as Cumberland moved back to his desk to lift another document when he heard a dull thud.

He whirled and the lieutenant did as well.

The girl had fainted dead away.

Cumberland rolled his eyes in disgust. "Women…" He hissed.


End file.
